


Don't fear Fear

by Pirated89



Category: Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-01-20
Updated: 2013-09-28
Packaged: 2017-11-26 04:23:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,386
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/646533
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pirated89/pseuds/Pirated89
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jack runs into an old enemy that’s not so threatening anymore and has an interesting reunion. After all, you can’t kill fear.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. We meet again

Jack whipped down the street, cool wind blowing through his frost white hair, bright blue eyes weaving to and fro, assessing every obstacle, avoiding every eye as he ducked and bobbed through mid day traffic. It was cold sure, but not cold enough, that breeze carrying a mildness to it that told him without a doubt his time of year was coming to an end. Jack took a sharp left, nearly knocking over a pedestrian business man right into the road, but with a quick hook of his staff and a winded twirl, he spun the man backwards and back onto the side walk before zipping off, never to be seen by the eyes of an adult.

 

It wasn't as if the Guardians didn't care for adults, but since they were fueled by belief, and adults tend to lose that heart as they grew up, they all decided it best to only reveal themselves to the children, and only in emergency situations. Revealing themselves tended to upset the balance of their worlds and the modern one. For no matter how hard little Jamie Bennett tried to tell his parents about the guardians, to get them to believe, he only ended up the time that should be spent, sledding after[school](http://pirated89.livejournal.com/590.html), and having snow ball fights, in a small third floor office building, reflecting to another non-believing grown up, how things like the Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny, were not anything a boy his age should be believing in anymore.

 

Adults just didn't have the heart children did, so they would protect them, in the best way they could, from afar. North had his poles, expanding business by building another workshop in the south, Tooth had her tooth palace, a pantheon of children’s memories stored away and cataloged in velvet cushioned cases, in a golden laced atrium high above the ground. The Kangaroo had his tunnels, [a network](http://pirated89.livejournal.com/590.html) of underground paths and portals all leading to the Warren in the center where flowers bloomed everywhere, and eggs rolled every which way into rivers of multicolored dyes and paint. Sandy kept to the dreams of children, flowing from one to another like the sands of time. It was always night time somewhere, and Jack, picked up the same habit. When winter left the eastern side of the world, he migrated to the west, and then back again.

 

As of now, the weather was reaching a balmy 55 and the snow and ice he tried to lay down just wasn't sticking, all melting into rain and slush. If it was earlier in the season he would have enough magic to conjure up a great nor’easter for Easter, but two major things were stopping him. One, he had promised the Jack Rabbit that he would stop snowing over his holiday. Sure he was , usually, a man of his word, but what really kept him from bringing back the cold was the children. When Easter and spring crept closer, no one wanted snow anymore. Jack Frost was lost in thought as all the children became eager to hunt eggs in the newly growing grass and [flower bushes](http://pirated89.livejournal.com/590.html). His powers depleted, and he didn't fight it, so instead he was making a few more rounds around town before Spring settled in.

 

Jack reached the end of town where the park was, a place that used to be covered in snow, now blossoming with color after all that rainfall. He hovered down until pale bare feet met the soft new blades of grass. He wasn't a man of warm weather but it was a nice change of pace before it got too hot for him to handle. Sleeves rolled up he ran through the place, the children long gone home for dinner and home work, the sun setting in the distance, every place his feet touched down left a small layer of ice than thinned away as he gained distance. After a few laps around the newly budding trees, he reached the end of park where the woods began, chuckling to himself as he slowed to a stop and looked around for the last time before next winter. He remembered the woods in the winter, his favorite place to go when they were covered in snow. Everything was still and silent, and now that his life was filled with the laughter of children, he didn't fear it anymore.

 

Jack lowered his staff to his side, and began to move into the woods, hovering slightly with each step, preventing stray branches from scraping his feet. The ground was stripped with the spots the sun leaked through, and the elongated shadow the trees cast onto the ground. The woods in the winter was a magical place, but it was a bit more eerie the way it was now. The animals hadn't returned just yet so the only thing he heard was the sound of twigs horse hooves in the distance.

 

"Wait....what?" He quipped to himself, looking around the woods.

 

Spring wasn't exactly his time of year but he did know that hearing horses wasn't exactly a spring time tradition. Light brown brows furrowed together as he narrowed his eyes. It wasn't just hooves and neighs anymore, he caught the faint sound of a weak moan and was moving further into the trees, the shadows growing thicker as the number of evergreens increased. Jack skidded to a halt in mid air as a much louder neigh came screeching through the foliage, followed by a loud yell that trailed off to incoherent shouts he couldn't quite make out.

 

"Who's there-?!" He shouted, but getting no response back, only peaked his concern and encouraged him to follow the sounds. It sounded like trouble, and kicking up the speed, lashed forward with the winds helping his velocity until he saw something that caused him to stop again. In the middle of the woods, thrashing around the bottom of a tree base was dark horse, wide yellow eyes, strands of black sand trailing everywhere it romped, and Jack immediately pointed his staff at it, remembering all too well what they were, and what they caused.

 

"Hey!" He shouted stepping out from behind a large tree as he caught the steed's attention. The beast turned his head and snorted, almost as if to scoff him off and went back to slamming into the tree, raising its front legs and slamming its sharpened hooves into that bark, vibrating the tree and scrapping off bark in broken chunks.

 

 "I said- Hey!" Jack shouted again, firing a burst of ice at it, hitting the creature broad side and knocking it away from its target. Jack took a quick glance at the trashed bark before the dark steed caught his attention again. Sticks broke under dragged hooves, the animal posed in a threatening stance. Jack glared the nightmare down, staff at the ready, meeting those glowing eyes.

 

"C'mon dark stuff. Let's see what you've got" he growled snarkily as the horse shook its head and charged at him. Jack quickly flew up into the air, firing several bolts of ice at it, but the nightmare evaded and screamed out a neigh as it circle around and ran back at him. Frost shot back down to the ground, holding his position at the beast ran at him, twirling his staff in one hand, the other posed out in front of him. That twisted wood lit up with a bright blue, and as the horse came into striking distance Jack swung, hard and fast, and drove that dark sand up into the air, encasing it in ice as it left a rather large trail of spiked shards.

 

"Not that much apparently" Jack grinned smugly, twirling his staff and striding up to the ice, bits of black sand engrained into it. Now that the ground was safe again, the white haired man strode off, and up to the target of the nightmares vicious attacks. He put out a hand and let it slide over stripped off shards of wood. "What in Mim's name were you trying to do?" He breathed to himself. Jack circled around the tree a bit, stopping again. He didn't see anything particularly out of the ordinary, cocking his head slightly, until he felt something hit his shoulder. He jumped a bit as he whipped around on guard, staff up. His brows relaxed however, staff lowering as he peered out into a horizon of empty trees. "Huh." He huffed quizzically before he felt something hit his shoulder again. "What-?" He said, brows knitting again, until he looked over his shoulder, and noticed a sort of black goop running down it. "What in the- ...?" He started, dipping his fingers into it and rubbing them together, feeling that grainy sand slide betwixt his index finger and thumb. Jack looked up and saw the section of pine needles covered in the stuff, and dripping down onto him. He moved aside to avoid the next drop, and shifted around the tree, moving closer to look up into the tower of branches, and that when he saw him. Clad in the shadows and clinging to the tree several feet up "Black!" Jack grit starring up at the man who looked back down at him without response. Instead he stood, arm clung to his side and began climbing higher.

 

"Oh no you don't nightmare-!" He shouted and was flying up that tree in a heartbeat.

 

"Get away-!" Pitch shouted in that familiar voice he hadn't heard in years. Gritting out a grunt of pain as he scrapped to get to the next branch.

 

"What are you doing back here Black-!?" Jack growled, stopping a branch up from where Pitch was and jumping down to branch he stood on. Pitch backed up, holding out one hand poised to attack as he backed up until his back hit the tree trunk. It was then that Jack noticed how the man was holding himself and his head turned slightly in confusion.

 

"Stay away from me, Frost-!" Pitch spat the name disgustingly as black sand formed around his hand. Jack flinched defensively himself but as that black sand twitched and sputtered out, it dropped from those grey finger tips and dissipated as Pitch let out a groan through barred teeth and a seethe as he gripped his side. "Ah-" Pitch moaned weakly before his foot slipped and he was falling down. He slammed into several branches on the way down, and landed in a heap onto the wood's floor. The setting sun burned a bright orange as it began to set and he hissed at the intensity of it, clawing and pulling himself into the shadows of the large evergreen. Jack watched in, he didn't want to say concern but he did follow the man, floating back down to the ground, standing in the sun light Pitch so obviously couldn't handle.

 

"You look awful" He quipped in a tone of cruel irony that reflected the similar sentiment Pitch tried to hand him and the other Guardians the last they met.

 

"Oh- Shut up!" Pitch spat, that English accented voice cracking a high tone as he winced in pain.

 

"I thought we got rid of you the last time you tried to take over the world." Jack huffed, pacing slightly in the sun.

 

"You-" Pitch began, gritting through his teeth "You can't kill- fear- Frost!" The man letting out another groan as he attempted to shift himself back, away from that winter waste.

 

"Yeah yeah yeah." Jack chided as he moved closer, full of bravado as always. "Well it looks like you can wound it at least. That's one heck of a scrape you've got there." Pointing at the trail of black sand Pitch was leaving behind.

 

"Just go away-!" Black grit. "You're not even supposed to be in this  hemisphere-!" Still clawing at the dirt to drag himself away.

 

Jack looked up to the distance and saw an old bed frame. No mattress, just a pillow on top and a shadowed square beneath, despite the space in the frame. He had only seen it once before, the last time he saw the boogeyman, when Pitch was dragged off by the steeds of fear.

 

"So that's how you got here" He said, still continuing after the man at a slow pace.

 

"No." Pitch said, stopping his mad scrapping. "I'm here because yo-"

 

"Cahn't kell feah" Jack mocked, in a poor accent and a deepened voice.

 

Pitch glared at him disgustedly as the Frosted fool just laughed at him. "People will always have fear-! I'm not just the boogeyman." He spat. "I'm the terror in your closet! The bump under your bed! I will never- be gone!"

 

Jack caught up to the nightmare and bent down, staff dropped over his shoulders as he held it in both hands behind his head. "But that doesn't mean people believe in you either." He said proudly, as Pitch stiffened his lip and glowered at Frost.

 

Jack's eyes did drop to the man's hand, and that smirk faded slightly. "Looks like fears been getting the best of, you."

 

Black kept that glare for a bit longer before he too looked down, moving his hand slightly, seeing the black gash, his equally black robe ripped and sand seeping out. He let out a seethed hiss of pain and put his hand back, gripping that missing section of robe together to hide it.

 

"....it looks painful" Jack said, snide tone dropped in lieu of a milder one.

 

"And you look like an ice covered idiot." Pitch spat shifting back a bit more. Jack just shook his head as he laid down his staff. Black wasn't going to be any kind of threat, not the way he was now.

 

"All I ever wanted was to exist! All I ever wanted was to be believed in! All I ever wanted-!"

 

"Was to be feared?" Jack scoffed, finishing that replayed sentiment for him. Pitch stopped, and then pale yellow eyes bore into crystal blue.

 

"I can't help what I am" Brows furrowed as he spoke. "I exist to be feared. And this-" He lifted his hand again. "Is what happens when nobody fears me! This- is what happens when I lose my powers!" clenching a black sand covered hand into a fist and shaking it before letting out another pained groan and putting his hand immediately back over his wound. "This-....is my-"

 

"Center."  Jack finished, and Pitch looked at him, glare still in place but with a hint of confusion. Jack turned his head away for a moment and Black moved to the tree's trunk. He placed both hands on the ground and with all of his remaining strength, grunted his way to his feet, leaning against the evergreen, thankful he was on the side the sun wasn't hitting. The shadows were his home, he found solace and comfort there, and a slight strength being encased in darkness. His chest heaved as he rested, having exerted too much in the weakened state he was in. "Just go- freeze some poor kid's tongue to a pole and leave me alone!" He demanded. Jack stood up as well, and couldn't help but let out a small laugh at the idea.

 

"What is it with you and being alone? What is it some shadow thing I'm not getting?" Frost chided twirling his staff off his shoulders and back to standing up straight.

 

"You, tell me." Pitch sneered. "Little Jack Frost all alone. Just wanting to be 'left alone' " Black mocked.

 

Jack didn't respond to that, and Pitch continued on. "Last time I saw you, you would rather have been all alone than helping  _me_." Scoffing out contempt as he clung to that tree.

 

"You mean with a nightmare who wanted to rule the world with darkness and fear-? Of course I did." Jack's tone getting a bit sterner as he defended himself. "You cause nothing but chaos and terror. I wasn't about to help  _you_ \- while all the other guardians fade away!"

 

Pitch narrowed his eyes menacingly, but it was about all he could really do to the other.

 

"But...when I see you, stuck out here, dragging yourself to your death bed over there-" pointing to the bed frame several feet away. "....I don't think anyone deserves to be cast out." For once in a very long time, Jack held a tone of complete sincerity. "Because I know how that feels, not to be believed in." Standing up straight. "And I know, you were put here for a reason."

 

Pitch looked at Frost as if he had suddenly sprouted another head. "I have no other reason." He hissed. "I exist to bring fear. Or I did. Until you goody goody Guardians- ruined everything!" Shouting the last , clasping both hands to that trunk as he did. Dark sand shot up the tree, spurred on by that rage and raced upwards into the branches. The needles of the tree shook and began to turn black, drying up and falling off. However as they did, the sun shown through more and Black was retracting his hands, letting a quick yelp go as he felt that sun hit him again, shifting back into the now shrunken, shadowed part of the tree, and growling at himself for it. 

 

Jack watched in pity, and a little bit of concern. He had to stop for a moment, gather his thoughts. He tried to think back to what North once told him. "You may be just the boogey man, but, your center is fear." Black just watching him now with a foul look as he spoke.

 

"Well-" Frost began a little more upbeat. "Who says fear has to be used for bad?"

 

Black scoffed out a laugh as he listened to the ramblings of a moron. "Fear is at its very core- bad! Fear is what keeps the ignorant in power and the people apart. Fear is the loss of hope and the seed of doubt. I am the manifestation of fear-!" He snapped at the younger. "I have been around for centuries Jack Frost" Spitting the boys name at him. "What would a young fairy tale like you know about what I am" Pitch pushed against that tree, a bit shaky on his feet, and began to limp away.

 

Jack just stood there. "Pitch" he called, but the other literally turned his back on him.

 

"Go away- Guardian." He scoffed. "I don't need your pity." Slowly slinking toward that bed frame.

 

"I don't pity you" Jack said moving closer again. Not ever one to quit on anything.

 

"People will fear me....children will-" almost tripping, but managing to stay on his feet. "Children will fear me..." he muttered angrily.

 

Jack just let out a sigh. "I don't think they need to." he said in a softer tone. "If you want to be left alone, fine. But.... we're not only here to help the children. We help each other. Crawl out of your shadows when you want to start being believed in, for better reasons."

 

And with that, Jack was gone. Flying off on a strong wind gush that carried him out of the woods and back into town. Pitch didn't look, not at first, but after the wind died down and the woods were silent again, he turned to look over his shoulder. Jack was gone, and Black looked down to the dirt and twigs under his feet. After a moment he shook his head, dreams were meant for the sand man, not for him, and he slunk back into the shadows, underneath the bed* 


	2. A chance meeting in China

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bringing winter weather to Beijing Jack encounters the nemesis he didn't expect to see yet again.

Easter came and went without a hitch, or more importantly, without Pitch. He wasn't sure why he hadn't brought it up to the other Guardians, but for the moment he kept the fact that Black had returned under his hood. In the mean time, Jack was busy, bringing snow and ice to all the regions in the far east. A winter wonderland for every country, that wasn't already covered in snow. Jack loved country hopping, and right now he was in the city of Beijing, in the people's republic of China. There was nothing better, than the sight of all those lights, reflecting so beautifully off a fresh layer of white powdered snow, and Jack had laid it on thick this year. Ten to twelve inches accumulated already and he had more planned over the evening. China was getting a lot of snow this year, school was going to be out for three days at the minimum, maybe even a week. Millions of building windows to frost, hundreds of streets to block with snow so school buses wouldn't be able to go out in the morning. It was a beautiful sight and he took in everything as he flew through the streets, taking his time as he went along. Not many people on the streets in the middle of the night. Earlier if Jack looked up he would have seen strands of Sandy's golden dreams, twisting and flowing their way into children's rooms to give them the perfect dreams, but all the kids had gone to bed hours ago, and had been taken care of, sleeping soundly as Jack worked late into the night. 

Strolling down the sidewalk, ducking into a back alley behind a Ya Wang restaurant, he picked up all sorts of smells that glided through the air. "If only it was open" he said with a grin, staff over his shoulder as he strode and began to whistle. The alley way held an amazing acoustic and the cold winds carried them through the night. If you have ever heard the high pitch sounds of the winds as they blew by, you were without a doubt, hearing the sound of Jack Frost, whistling away in the cold winter air. 

"That's a very, lovely, melody Jack" called a deep echoed voice that slithered through the alley way and into Jack's ear. The winter spirits hands gripped tight to his staff knees bending slightly as he whipped around, looking every which way for the sound of foreign voice. A chuckle resounded around him as the shadows grew higher on the walls. He knew that laugh, he knew that voice, only confirmed by the shape of a man the shadows began to form into. 

"Pitch" Jack said, looking around at all the multiple shadows of the man he had met again only a few months ago. "What are you doing here?" He asked pointedly, standing up straight again but keeping a firm hold on his staff. 

"It's good to see you too, Jack." The shadows growing bigger until they were blacking out the alley. Jack squeezed the twisted wooden staff, and as the magic flowed through it, it glowed a bright blue, waving it around hastily to break up that over whelming dark. 

"Come out Pitch. I already told you, you can't scare me" Holding the shining staff towards the closest wall to reflect that light off it, increasing it's glow. 

"Always such bravado" Pitch cooed darkly, an arm reaching out of the shadows and snapping up Jack's staff, relinquishing its bright light. 

"Hey-!" Jack snapped turning toward the tall dark figure that slunk out into the shadows of the snow coated alleyway. 

"Oh now don't go getting snow don't your knickers Frost" Pitch began. "It's not as if I could actually use this-" He said, with a hint of venom as he held the thing, clutched in his hands, looking at it with contempt, as if hoping that if he held it tight enough he could. 

"-This over grown glow stick" Fingers slowly loosened as he flipped the head of until it was facing right side up again. "I'm powerless...remember?" He scoffed and extended his arm out, and the staff back to its rightful owner, who snapped it back up and held it behind him a bit more than he normally did. 

"What do you want Pitch?" Jack asked. His head tilted as he noticed the man had no marks on him, and was walking without the limp he carried the last they met. "You look like you're feeling back to your good old' oogey boogey self." Getting that snarky tone back that he always seemed to carry around the other. 

Pitch put his hands up and clapped them together slowly for a minute as he paced around the young spirit. "Bravo. So someone finally started to notice things around them other than, himself-" He spat. "Cookie for you..." He grumbled arms placed behind his back as he walked. "Although I suppose that is more North's breakfast of choice isn't it. But then- with all the time you spend up in his little workshops, perhaps you've picked up some of his disgusting habits as well, along with his sickeningly sappy words of wisdom." Phasing into a shadow and disappearing before the Guardians eyes. 

"What was that you were saying before?" Black echoed around Jack. "Something about my 'center', and Fear..." Snapping his fingers as he reappeared behind Jack. "Ah yes" Putting his hands on Frost's shoulders as he leaned down to husk lowly. "Fear doesn't have to be used for evil." 

Jack jumped at the sudden contact and shrugged himself out of those hands, putting distance between them, heart picking up a bit at the sudden surprise, to which Pitch only let out another menacingly low laugh. 

"I thought you weren't afraid of me Jack" Putting his arms behind his back and holding them there as he starred down the shoe-less man. 

"I've never been afraid of you, Boogey." Jack said shrugging off that lingering feeling of long fingers. 

"No." Black said in agreement. "You haven't, have you..." The taller looking over his shoulder to the newest guardian. Jack was the first in a long, long, period of time that hadn't feared him, or his return. The bunny said he didn't but then what didn't the rabbit lie about when it came to his own weaknesses. 

"What are you doing here Pitch, you following me? Trying to figure out the fine tunings of how to have fun?" A cheeky grin toyed with the darker man, but he didn't answer. Pitch only turned his head back and continued pacing around him, if a bit slower than he had before, and that change in behavior brought up something Jack had wanted to ask the last time the met. 

"And ya know the last time I saw you, you were being attacked by a fear stead. I thought those things could fly- and... they're still after you?" He said with a quizzical tone. "And more importantly-" He said pointing a finger at the shadow. "If they were your nightmares, how come they turned on you?" 

Pitch stopped completely, frozen to current footing as the pale boy interrogated him. "And exactly what business is that of yours?" he quipped defensively back at him, refusing to meet his gaze.

"Because if it wasn't for me, your butt would still be stuck up a tree while that nightmare tried to bash it down" A smug look in place. "So spit it out boogey. What was with the bullying act?" tapping his staff on his shoulder, shifting his weight slightly on his feet. 

The boogeyman felt his own fingers claw into his arm he was holding in annoyance, a scowl twitching at his lips as he turned his head back over his shoulder to give his regards, and then the rest of him as well. 

"Very well. You want to know so badly? Fine." beginning his circled steps around the other again. "Those nightmares, aren't mine." He stated flatly, with a scorned tone underneath, putting a hand to his chest for emphasis. "Nightmares at their very cores, are dreams. In order to create a nightmare, I needed the Sandman's dream sand." Conjuring up a bit of the black glittering sand in his hand. "It took years to perfect the technique, but after a few flounced I finally created the very first 'fearlings'." Grasping the air with pride as he thought over his accomplishments. He let those fists roll open as he went on. "Oh such beautiful nightmares" He cooed, arms lowering slightly as he continued his path around Jack. As his arms fell to his sides, his smile faded and his features grew somber. "But-" He began, looking away from the younger now. "You can't control dreams." a scowl forming at the corners of his mouth as he spoke. "You can only give them form....manipulate them, if you have the power" clenching his fist in the air as he spoke of power. "Once that power dissipates....well. You were there for that particular visual. Hardly needs explaining." That sour tone back with a vengeance. 

Jack didn't know what to say. He just stood, feet feeling that cold that he was usually so accustomed to, only now there was a real hint of that frigid temperature as he shifted, empathy hitting him like a burst of cold north winds. Contrary to popular belief Jack did care about others. Sure for a while he may have put that on a back burner, 300 years to be precise, but he had to figure out who he was before he could begin to help anyone else. Now that he knew who he was and where he came from, he was a Guardian, to protect the children, and the spirits they believed in.

"Have I actually silenced the great Jack Frost?" Pitch mocked, stopping his narrative pacing. "No small feet." He teased putting a hand to his lips as he looked on.

"No, I-" Jack began, but was tripping over words he didn't have planned. "....I'm sorry." 

Now it was Black's turn to be struck silent. "You're.....sorry?" He said disbelievingly, a slight snort as he starred the younger down with doubt. Jack remained still and cold, but Pitch couldn't say he didn't like that about the younger. "You should be." He said, turning his chin up and getting prideful again. "If it weren't for you and your pathetic band of half wit holidays-, my nightmares would have grown even more powerful." Clenching his fists before stretching them out as if to display himself to the world. "Have you ever heard of a night terror, Jack?" Moving back to his crow like circling "They're a wondrous thing to behold" Pointed fingers moving out toward that pale skin and trailing along the boy's jawline. 

Jack's eyes widened it seemed, more than North's when they were 'full of wonder'. He felt his chest pick up as his heart beat harder and faster. It was an unnerving feeling, to be touched after hundreds of years of being nothing but incorporeal. It happened the same when Jamie hugged him, but that felt warmer, innocent, and caring. This- this felt entirely cold, and coming from Jack frost that was saying something. He was finally believed in, but actual physical contact was still few and far in between. He finally understood where North was coming from when he said they were 'too busy for children'. Bringing joy is a full time job, and everywhere, some place always needed new snow. He tried his hardest to always make time for a few kids here and there, he always would, but busy was still busy. He was a guardian now. Jack's brows knit together as he broke out of his own stupor and jerked his face away from that hand, but Pitch just gave a low laugh and pinched it all the same, jostling it between his fingers before he did finally let go.

"I haven't- and I won't." he spat bravely. "Because they'll never come to be." Holding onto his staff tighter in his hands as he kept the thing pointed in Pitch's direction, but it didn't frighten the taller. Facial expression unphased by it, the nightmare just stood there in front of him. 

"Are you going to fight me Jack?" He asked, dark eyes boring into ice blues. "Going to kill... the boogeyman?" 

Jack's features stayed boldly locked onto that looming darkness, and a gaze that looked as if the sun itself had been eclipsed by eternal night. Though as he stared him down that hardened expression ease, lowering his readied defense. "No" he said, if a bit reluctantly. It wasn't that he wanted Pitch gone, he just wanted him to stop what he was doing, what he was trying to do. The sudden realization hit him as fast and as hard as an mistaken ice ball to the face instead of a snow ball. No part of him ever really wanted Pitch gone, not in the slightest. All the other guardians seemed terrified of him, or hateful, but Jack never really felt that way. He never actually even knew him, heck the first time he had met him was at Tooth's teeth palace, and after all that crisis and commotion Jack saw that rare glimpse of Pitch no one else had when he thought all was lost up in the arctic. That genuine moment of heart, of feeling, of a deep loneliness that hit very close to home as Black went on about family, about belonging and being believed in. "No I don't" he said, head angled down slightly still but ice blues rising right up to pin point Pitch's. "I wanna help" and in that moment he lowered his staff, pointing the of it head down completely as his own rose and just looking across to that shadowed man. 

Pitch himself had to pause, feet frozen in place in that cold snow, with features reflecting something neither man could put a finger on. Black's brows were knit, but only for a moment before they eased up sightly. "Help?" Pitch repeated. "Help with what?" and in that instant Jack finally had an answer.

"Help you belong" He said simply, and without a wavering doubt. 

Pitch was taken back by the sudden look of sincerity the younger held. Part of it disgusted him to the core and he flinched a step back as if someone turned on a flash light right onto him. Hands hitched up, but fell again as he continued to look lost in translation. Dark eyes searched every feature of the frozen fool's face and it only made him more uneasy when he couldn't detect a trace of treachery. "I don't belong." he spat with a sneer. "The Dark Ages have long gone" he husked, almost not wanting to admit it, but unable to deny it either "-and the world has become a sickening place of hope and love" spitting out the last words with contempt. "I exist only in the limbo of our world...and theirs" brushing a hand off in the direction of the high rise apartment buildings around them. "Neither living nor dead. Neither here nor gone-" turning away from the guardian "A shadowed existence of what once was." A bit of a jadedly cold chuckle at the irony of it all. "Funny old world isn't it?" he chided sarcastically. "You can't help me Jack." He said simply and began moving back off into the shadows of that darkened back alleyway. 

Jack stood there, pity seeming to run through him like a cold breeze of wind through your body on a somber winter day. His eyes moving over the man walking away from him yet again, but this time, something spurred him forward. Jack pushed off that snow covered concrete and reached out as fast as he could to grab a handful of Pitch's dark robe before the nightmare could disappear back into the shadows. "Pitch wait-!" he cried, gripping that cloth firmly in a fist and tugging the man back towards him. Pitch was stopped indeed but easier than Jack accounted for and found his face colliding with the boogeyman's side. Pitch looked down in an almost shocked outrage "Get off-!" he spat hastily, moving to push that hand off of him but Jack mindlessly persisted and as a grey colored hand snaked to his he did indeed let go, and grabbed it instead. "No!" Jack shouted back. 

For the first time in ages, in so many centuries that came and went since he could remember, someone was touching him. Pitch looked down, a mix of fear and alarm at the feeling of those fingers, cold and light skinned, wrapped tightly around his darker ones, if he believed he a heart anymore he would have thought it to be pounding up into his throat. Jack too was a bit taken back by his own actions, and as he looked up into a face that so reminded him of a panicked winter hare, or a doe caught in an open field, they locked eyes and stilled, as if both were waiting for the other to react or move. Neither seemed to know how to do that however as they just stilled in conjoined alarm. 

After a moment Jack started to produce sound again "Uh...I-" looking to their hands and then back to the taller. He cleared his throat and fought the confidence forward. "I said- ....no." Standing up straight again, feet finding a sturdier stand and holding that hand tighter in his. He could feel Pitch pulling it back but Jack wouldn't allow it. "I can help you." he said bravely. "If you just- let me-" he emphasized tugging it back toward him as if demanding the man stay. "I can." and meet the other man's eyes again. "I can help you-" tugging the Boogeyman forward, the shadows shoes being dragged forward through the small layer of snow that built up around them, leaving a small skidded trail behind them, as Pitch began to resemble a reluctant black cat about ready to claw at the cold kid before him. "-if you just stop running away!" Jack boomed with a finality that wasn't backing down. That hand that was poised to attack was twitching hesitantly and after another silent moment of uncertainty, though seemingly only from the shadows side, began to lower and fall away. The nightmare's eyes darted down to their hands and then back up to Jack a rebellious reluctance frowning over his features. He didn't like this, but he spoke up and uttered

 

....

 

"How?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to all the people that read this, and the few comment-ers and Kudos. Sorry it takes me so long, but here's more! Hopefully even more comes down the line ^.^; / 
> 
> Again thanks everyone who reads this :D 
> 
> I have so much fun writing Pitch and Jack [especially Pitch lol] that I can at least put some confidence into saying that there's a pretty good chance of more later. Just....i'm a slow jerk of a writer >x>;;; Sorry U_U'''

**Author's Note:**

> (I'm so sorry. *shame* )


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